Sunday, June 17, 2007

NFNS: Bye-bye, Colombe

Hey, guess who I'm not going to miss! For somebody who's gotta know her head is on the chopping block, and who is trying to present herself as some sort of foodie, and in fact a foodie that loves fresh, natural foods... why would anybody in such a position buy jarred cheese spread, and claim that her dish was fresh because she made a salsa to stir into it? Bye-bye, Colombe.

I'm a little bummed about Tommy. Yes, I was getting tired of him. If he had really applied himself, maybe he would have made it further both with me and with the competition. But the guy really missed his family, and that just made it rough. I think that going home was whathe really wanted and needed. The Japanese has a phrase that I think describes his going home, "shigata ga nai". In other words, there was really no avoiding it.

Did I or did I not tell you that Salmon was going to screw up? And fortunately, it wasn't really critical. He messed up one challenge and nailed the other. Rather than taking the glass-half-full view of things, the panel called him inconsistent. But the fact that the challenge that he nailed was the second one was a good thing. I suspect he'll make it to the top four.

Paul is out. Next episode, he's going home. If it wasn't for Tommy's growing homesickness, I think that Paul would have gone home this time. Not only was he serving undercooked burgers, he didn't know the exact minimum tempurature that they should have been. "160 or something" was not an answer that a caterer should have given. 165F, people. Anyone with a food handler's permit should have that number engraved into their brains.

Adrian is warming up. The way he talked to the crowd was exactly what I said he needed to do. His food was killer, and his personality was awesome. I'll be surprised if he's not one of the last two contestants.

Jag is getting friendlier, and his food is consistently awesome. It's going to take a while for him to make a comeback in my mind from his earlier behavior, but he is making progress. I'm going to guess he'll make it at least to the top three.

Amy and Rory are at about the same position in my book, with Rory moving up and Amy slipping. Rory seems more and more down to Earth, and her towel catching on fire reminds me of a couple of my own personal incidents in my first class in cooking school. Amy seems to know her stuff, but she needs to tone it down a bit. The only person that I know of on Food Network that can successfully cram that much information into that little time is Mario Batali. Other people, like Alton Brown, can cram a lot of information, but it takes a whole episode. If Rory can keep getting better, or if Amy can start improving again, I could see either of them making it to the top three, maybe even the top two.

1 comment:

I'm still on the fence about Jag but am beginning to think that his bad boy 'tude is just a cover for some extremely low self esteem issues. He just reminds me of the playground bully who picks on the little kids to take the attention off the fact that he's more scared of the big, bad wolf than they ever thought about being.

UGH, Colombe! WHY, WHY, WHY did this girl ever even make it onto the show in the first place? OK, so I get the sweet, wholesome image and trying to plug someone different into the mix but she used jarred cheese AND store bought chips. WHAT?!

I thought the Tommy issue was sad. I know that when I'm away from my kids for more than a couple of days, it feels like I'm missing an arm so I can definitely feel for him. He needed to go... for his own sake.

Paul is super cute, I think. Cute? Yes. Fun and energetic? Of course. A FN star? Not so much. I just want to reach into the TV and hold him down. "Sit, my child. Relax. Breathe." A chill pill or two would do him some good. I have a feeling though he's going to shoot himself in the foot one too many times... and very very soon.

I, too, like Adrien. There's just something about him... very Jamie Dean or something. He's warm without being fake and he seems to know "just enough" about food to get by but without making the viewer feel like an idiot for not knowing all the french definitions to things like chicken pressed between two sheets of plastic - which I think is a huge thing for that particular network.

And speaking of pressed chicken... Amy annoys the crap out of me with her "I lived in France" spill that she insists on adding to EVER SINGLE CHALLENGE. OK, we get it. You lived and trained in France. That only leaves about a billion other types of cuisine for you to brush up on. She just gives off this attitude of "Well, it's French so it's the best." Ummmm... reality check, lady... get one... and make it snappy!

Rory is growing on me but very slowly. I can't figure out if she's for real or not. I think the thing about her that bothers me is that she adds "Texas" to every thing she does, as if living in Texas gives her an out or a reason for her food. Her cheesesteak looked horrible and she even talked about being from Texas when she was presenting it to the panel. Last time I checked cheesesteaks were made famous a lot further north than Dallas. First the "Texas Sunset" disaster she called a cake and then her, "Well, I'm from Jersey but I live in Texas and my style of cooking is............." BLEH!

So far, I'm sticking to my initial feelings: I don't see anyone who just blows me away. They moved Sara Moulton to early AM time slots for a reason and not one of the contestants is, so far, even as interesting as she is. I know someone has to win but, at this point, I kind of wish they would do a wild card deal and bring in some Joe Schmoes off the street to liven it all up a bit.

(Oh, and could Giada's facial expression be any more critical and harsh? Ouch.)